Decorative facial tissue dispensers have gained wide acceptance by the consuming public. These dispensers include cartons that are typically circular, oval, or some other rounded sidewall shape, and include decorative colors, graphics, or indicia on the visible sidewalls. The cartons may be designed to coordinate or compliment the user's home décor, and are often displayed in highly visible places as a decorative accessory item.
In manufacturing of these decorative dispensers, it is often the situation that a mix of cartons with different graphic designs are processed in-line essentially in a random distribution. For example, a holiday edition of decorative dispensers may include a number of different holiday-themed graphics printed on the carton sidewalls, with these different themes being in no specific order in the processing line. For the lid application step of the process, this does not present a problem so long as the same lid (i.e., same neutral color) is used for all the designs. However, there are times when lids of a specific color are designated for particular carton graphic designs, particularly for premium grade products. This often results in the need to hand select and assemble the lids to the cartons.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,836 describes an apparatus and method for automatic lid selection in a produce packing process wherein different lids are assigned to containers of different types of produce. A separate lidding station is provided for each of the different lids. A symbol is affixed to each container and indicates the contents of the respective container. A reader reads the symbol and the container is directed to one of the many lidding stations to receive the correct lid. This type of system requires a multitude of lid application stations and associated conveyor and control systems, and would be extremely complicated and expensive for use in an in-line high-speed carton assembly process.
U.S. Pat. Appln. Pub. 2005/0039416 describes a color-coded shrink-wrapped closure system wherein beverage containers for different beverages are all provided with a common color cap. The beverages are differentiated by application of color-coded shrink-wrap to the caps. The publication describes that the processing facility can change the reel containing the colored shrink-wrap material based on the particular beverage being bottled at the time. This type of system does not have usefulness where the different beverages are randomly commingled in the same processing line as a result of an intentional random loading of products, a jam condition, or removal of damaged products, all of which would prohibit a strict maintaining of a specific product mix order to downstream lid application.
An efficient, compact, and relatively inexpensive automatic system is needed for matching different types or colored lids to different carton bodies in a high-speed production line. The present invention provides such a system and associated methodology.